The Department of Pharmaceuticals (Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) regulate medicine prices under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO, 2013) to support affordability of essential medicines.
What happened: NPPA price controls for essential medicines and “new drugs”
NPPA fixes ceiling prices for formulations listed in Schedule-I of DPCO, 2013 based on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from time to time. NPPA reports that, as on 23.07.2026, ceiling prices of 935 formulations are effective.
NPPA also fixes retail prices of “new drugs” defined in para 2(1)(u) of DPCO, 2013, where existing NLEM-listed medicines are newly combined with another drug or altered by changing strength/dosage. NPPA reports that it has fixed retail prices of 3,845 such new drugs till 23.07.2026.
For non-scheduled formulations (not covered by the ceiling-price schedule), manufacturers must not increase the maximum retail price (MRP) by more than 10% over the MRP of the same formulation during the preceding 12 months. NPPA further fixes prices under Para 19 of DPCO, 2013 to ensure availability of drugs at affordable prices in public interest.
How ceiling prices are revised and enforcement/monitoring
Related current affairs
- Price regulation of essential medicines under DPCO 2013
- Government’s measures to regulate and control prices of life-saving drugs
- Regulation of drug prices under DPCO 2013 and NPPA’s price-fixation process
- Government measures to improve access to affordable medicines (Janaushadhi, AB-PMJAY, Free Drugs Service Initiative, AMRIT, Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi/Discretionary Grant)